US Defense Secretary Ash
Carter and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper sent a
letter to the chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee
this week urging lawmakers to let the Pentagon use rockets that
had previously been ordered from Russia but not paid for before a
ban went into effect. The letter was dated May 11 and obtained by
Reuters ahead of a report published on Wednesday this
week.

Under the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015, the
Department of Defense is prohibited from using rocket engines
designed or manufactured in Russia as a result of the country’s
annexation of Crimea a year earlier. That restriction has kept
the Pentagon from acquiring RD-180 engines that would otherwise
power the Atlas 5 launch vehicle, but Carter and Clapper say
keeping that provision in place could soon pose big problems.

Law requires the Pentagon retains “assured access to
space,” Reuters reported, which necessitates that the
military has two satellite launch vehicles on the ready so that
unexpected setbacks don’t stop the DoD from putting objects into
orbit.

But United Launch Alliance (ULA), a venture between contractors
Lockheed Martin and Boeing which provides those vehicles to the
government, says it’s phasing out its US-powered Delta 4 rockets
and won’t be ready to deploy its new Vulcan rockets until the
next decade.

According to Reuters, the lawmakers wrote Sen. John McCain
(R-Arizona), the chair of the Armed Services Committee, to say
that blocking purchase of Russian rockets would keep ULA from
being able to provide options to the Pentagon.

US Air Force Secretary Deborah James said that rewriting the ban
would let ULA compete for 18 of 34 competitive launches currently
scheduled between now and 2022, and otherwise the group would be
limited to applying for only five.

Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, the venture led by
billionaire inventor Elon Musk, is close to becoming certified to
do launches for the US government, Reuters acknowledged. Even if
it gets the Pentagon’s seal of approval, though, Carter and
Clapper reportedly told McCain that losing access to the Atlas 5
and Delta 4 rockets could leave the Air Force with “a
multi-year gap where we have neither assured access to space nor
an environment where price-based competition is possible.”

Last month, General John Hyten, the head of the US Air Force
Space Command, told journalists in Russia that the Pentagon is
lobbying Congress to change the NDAA to keep RD-180 engines
operational for another four years. Otherwise, current law
provides that they be phased out by 2019.